The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-05-06
INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.
Seasonable Suggestions to the
Husbandman.
Too Little Attention Paid to Preparing Land
for Seeding and to Planting and Sowing
Income From Many Resources.
..weII sown Is Half Crown"

not needed as it deserves to be. Much
of the work of seeding in this country
is very badly done. We do our cult
waiting and harvesting better than our
planting and sowing. Unless plants
make a good start in the earliest stages
of their growth they are seldom very
strong or productive. The sprouts that
issue from a seed of any kind are very
tender, and a large portion of them fail
to become mature and productive plants.
Like many insects, fish, and animals
they die young. The history of seeds
and of the plants that spring from them
is given in the Parable of the Sewer,
and has been repeated every season
and in every country on the earth since
the Great Teacher talked to His disci-
Piles on the plains of Judea. Much
good seed is wasted every year in the
very way it was when grain was more
precious than it is now, Some falls by
the wayside, some where there is not
much earth, some among rubbish, while
some is left exposed and is devoured by
the birds. The proportion of seed
sown by hand, scattered by a machine,
or placed in the soil by means of a
drill-that produces strong and pro-
ductive plants is very small. Especial
ly is this true of very small seeds, like
those that produce Towering plants,
the most valuable edible vegetables,
| the grasses and clovers,
The seed-bed is seldom prepared as
carefully as it should be. 1t is true
the ground is plowed and narrowed,
but not enough attention is given to de-
tail. On most fields that are devoted
to the production of small grain one
fifth of the ground is not in the proper
condition to insure the growth of
small and tender plants or even to rem
der the termination of seed certain.
In the operation of breaking a consid-
cradle portion of the sod was not turn
ed so as to insure its rotting. There
was much cutting and covering"
Many hard sods remain several years
after the breaking was done. They
are always in the way of the plow,
harrow, and seeder. So too, they are
in the way of all the seeds that are
placed in the ground. They prevent
their termination by excluding the air
and light. They press on the stalks of
the young and tender plants and keep
them from assuming a straight posi-
ton.
The grass-roots in any sod retain
their vitality for several years, and con-
tinue to grow, though the sods are
thrown about by the plow and harrow
They occupy a considerable space to
the exclusion of grain. and draw nour-
ishment from soil where grain plants
have started. They prevent the farmer
from securing a uniform crop of grain
from an entire field. They bring down
the average yield by causing mitch Of it
to be inferior. They prevent one por-
toin of the crop from ripening at the
tine the remainder natures.
Neither powders nor small loose
stones are very common on the prairie,
but in some sections they are quite
numerous, having been brought from
a. distance during the glacial period.
They interfere with the use of the
pillow and harrow and occupy consider
able space. 1t pays to remove them
even from land that is regarded as
cheap. The large stones a be used
for making the foundations for build
ings, and the small ones are valuable
in making concrete walls. In many
fields there are places covered with
sand, gravel, or hard clay which are
almost entirely unproductive of grain,
and these require special attention.
Clay and manure mixed with the sand
or gravel will make a good soil.
A tenacious clay needs to be broken up
in the fall and exposed to the action of
the frost. 1t is a crude soil that is
waiting to be improved. 1t requires
more working than ordinary soil, and
is improved by the addition of sand.
Sticks, roots, and the stalks of corn
and large weeds interfere with the use
of the plow and harrow quite as much
as sods and stones do, and in various
ways diminish the growth of grain.
Most farmers aim to bury them with
tho pillow, but they are not always sue.
cessful in doing so. There is generally
economy in raking them up, piling
them up IN heaps, and burning them
before the field is plowed.
Careful. painstaking old farmers
state that broadcast sowing by hand
will soon take its place among the
''lost arts that pertain to agriculture,
Farmers boys are no longer ambitious
to learn how to SOW seed by hand, but
experts contend that it can be distribut-
ed more evenly in that way than by the
use of any machine. As grain-fields
increase in size there appears TO be less
pains taken in sowing them. Planting
and sowing are now generally done by
the aid Of machines. Many use a drill
for putting in garden seeds, and a new
potato planter is patented almost every
month. Given seed of uniform size and
soil of the same character in regard to
c~omnosition and ~finanass throu0bout